im not particularly good at the game and having Access to a table is hard so i wont waste your time regarding technical advice to improve my Game however having read through your profile you are or was however you want to say it a talented player so my question is Why didn't you give the Pro Ranks a go ?

wildJONESEYE wrote:im not particularly good at the game and having Access to a table is hard so i wont waste your time regarding technical advice to improve my Game however having read through your profile you are or was however you want to say it a talented player so my question is Why didn't you give the Pro Ranks a go ?

1st and foremost, lack of money. I left home very young or more accurately, I was an ass of a kid and got kicked out.

I was unemployed and living on $400.00/month unemployment ensurance. Given my rent was $400/month I was left to hustling to make money to even afford table time and to eat. I got by but the majority of the money games were in 8-ball/9-ball matches so you lose focus on the real game you want to play.

The next biggest issue was the lack of a proper circuit and that's still a huge issue in Canada. To properly progress from amateur to pro you must compete against progressively harder opponents. This is usually done via structured leagues where you progress up the rankings/divisions and get noticed. That time is when you have the opportunity to gain sponsors, funding and a few $ from events. That structure is non-existent in Canada. As I mentioned, just when my game was reaching the level where I felt I could be competetive, interest in tournaments hit an all time low here. Tournaments that previously attracted 64+ man fields started to struggle to find 16.

Pool halls got busy pulling out snooker tables and putting in little 8-ball tables rendering many halls that used to host good tournaments unusable as a tournament venue. I recall showing up for a pro-am event that had 38 odd players registered. When we showed and we found that the hall had removed all but 2 snooker tables.

Those of us who didn't travel hundreds of miles to attend immediately pulled out and those who were left wound up with a non-event. Virtually all the other good events went that way and interest was all but gone. No events, no money, no interest from the younger players.

The up and coming players gravitated away from snooker into the more lucrative 9 ball tournament circuit, further reducing interest in the sport. Televised coverage of professional events kept on for a bit but the broadcasting of the events got worse and worse. Within a year they were starting to interrupt century breaks for commercials and then come back in another frame saying what the clearence wound up being.

It's a real shame snooker has gone the way it has in Canada but at least it happened while I was young enough to recover and get on another career path.

Do I have regrets of what might have been? Yes but I was always realistic about the state of the game in Canada which tempered my expectations. I knew when I started to devote my time to the game it was in decline in Canada but I loved it and would've still done the same thing even if it was guaranteed that I could never go pro.

it does seem a shame the atention span of the canadian TV Station wasent for snooker but for the quicker game of pool.

another question as someone that knows both games.

do you think the reason pool is world wide recognised is you can compete to a good level quicker than the dedication needed as a novice to get good at snooker and that's why clubs replace snooker with pool tables they can get more in with more people basically able to pot balls on them.

It's less time consuming, less space consuming, it's everywhere, the rules are simple and it's something everyone has a chance of winning.

The average non-player could spend 3 hrs on a snooker table and never make a 16-break but the same player has an immediate chance of winning on the small table with only one pot required, the 8 or 9 ball.

I think many today give up too quickly when encountering something difficult or challenging. That said, after two hours and only a few pots made on a snooker table I have to admit I'd be likely to move to something simpler too.

Snooker is just too difficult to be a game for all to play. That's not to say that people can't enjoy watching it if they're not players but people don't enjoy playing it if they lack the skills. Well, most don't. There's always a few per hall willing to go hit snooker balls for hours and never make a 16 break but they're pretty rare. Admittedly I would never have been able to play the game day in day out and been content to only ever make 16.

Sonny wrote:And I want to know how you fare against Cliff Thorburn when you play him bearing in mind he's a grinder and you're a potter, and how good are Cliff and Kirk these days?

Cliff generally gets the better of me but I have my moments . It's funny, I've known Cliff for 20 years but I still get nerves playing with him. It's always hard to play an icon and not feel like you've just picked up the game

Cliff is still the most focused player I know, practice or match he puts the same effort into every single shot. He continues to play regularly which is huge and still puts in a fair bit of practice. His long potting isn't quite what it used to be but he's still knocking in tons when he gets in the balls.

Kirk will always be a strong player, it's just a question of table time. I recall him walking in cold to the Canadian championships not having hit a ball in 2 months and he knocked in a ton first frame and broke down on 97 in the next. Class in permanent and if Kirk ever got back to practicing and playing every day he'd be a threat against anyone.

I had Kirk in my group during the Canadians a couple of years ago and honestly I had him if I hadn't been victim of a poor table. I was up 2-1, 46 ahead and perfect on the pink to stun down on to the open reds. The pink hit the back of the pocket and popped right back out. I left Kirk prime position and he naturally cleared with an 80 odd break. Instead of 3-1 it was 2-2, he won the next 2 frames, one on the blue, one on the black so they could've gone either way. Just goes to show you, you can't let slices of bad luck affect you. It put me in a negative mindset and I stopped playing positive snooker. Instead of trying to win I was trying not to lose which never works.

All in all they're two great players, probably the best Canada has ever produce and it's been a real pleasure to know them.

case_master wc wrote:Any ideas on how to stop imparting side of power shots?

IMO you need to work on your cue action, it sounds like it gets a little skewed when trying for more power. This is very common, even at the top level of the game. Certain pros never obtain a good power stroke....James Wattana comes to mind for instance. Knowing the limit of power you can comfortably apply is extremely important.

The Drill

I like hitting the cue ball up and down the spots to see how my stroke is going. If I hit from the brown spot and can get the cue ball to come right back and hit the tip of my cue I know I'm hitting the ball perfect. Allowing the cueball to return and hit my tip helps teach you to stay down on the shot. Certainly you stay down longer than normal but still it can help cement the need to stay down and still until the shot is done.

If you're working on power you don't really want the ball coming back and hitting your tip at mach 2 so the solution is to place reds on either side of the spots leaving just enough room for the cueball to go between them. Start with just putting one red on either side of the black spot and hitting from the brown spot. The goal is just to get the cueball to pass through the two reds and back out.

To toughen the drill you can make the gap very tight but rather than doing that, my preference is to add more reds on either side of the pink, blue and brown spots. Trace amounts of side might not be apparent going through one set of reds situated by the black spot but I guarantee if you've got reds on either side of all the spots, any amount of side will noticed.

All you want from this drill is to avoid moving any reds. Start with normal power, center ball and work from there. Topspin and backspin can also be used to complicate the shot.

Even if you find your stroke can't be maintained at maximum power you can at least learn how much power you can apply with accuracy.

Why is it Coach that i can pot all the long and middle distance pots and acute angled pots but i break down on easy short distance pots?

GJ hit the nail on the head.

You're guilty of something every player is guilty of and that's taking the easy shots for granted. Instead of sticking to your regular rythm of say 4 feathers and then striking the cueball you only feather twice and hit the ball. This affects not just your aim but also your stroke in a very negative way.

IMO the best way to minimize your doing this is to develop a pre-shot routine and rythm based on your approach to the toughest shot you might take on.

For example if you need to feather the cueball 6 times for a particularly hard shot in order to be comfortable, that should be the rythm you strive for on all shots.

If you always approach all shots as you would the hardest shot you're willing to try then you're very unlikley to miss the easy ones.

New rule - please ask new questions in a new topic. This one is fine though if you want to chat with sickpotter and ask him questions about his life and snooker in Canada etc

I like this bit:"Just goes to show you, you can't let slices of bad luck affect you. It put me in a negative mindset and I stopped playing positive snooker. Instead of trying to win I was trying not to lose which never works."

So true and it's a natural reaction. It takes a certain type of player to conquer this and those players tend to be the ones who win tournaments.

This is just my opnion, but I have noticed to so many times how even pro players leaves too little angle when splitting the pack on the black. It´s not working that way, reds doesn´t split properly and white ball gets stuck. IMO, it´s not that much more diffucult to pot the black when there´s more angle. How do you see this issue ?

i know its easy getting carried away on a thread but it really would be easier and simpler for everyone if technical problems with your game is put here viewtopic.php?f=80&t=732 to leave this thread for general chit chat with the coach

mediter wrote:This is just my opnion, but I have noticed to so many times how even pro players leaves too little angle when splitting the pack on the black. It´s not working that way, reds doesn´t split properly and white ball gets stuck. IMO, it´s not that much more diffucult to pot the black when there´s more angle. How do you see this issue ?

I agree that players sometimes leave too little angle to properly go into the cluster but that's certainly not the intent, they were trying for a good angle to disturb the cluster and didn't get one.

Thin cuts or pots with more angle aren't much more difficult

I'm going to have to disagree with you there. Thin cuts are more difficult because you're trying to aim at a smaller portion of the object ball. Having less of a target is always harder.

I think it's important to break this kind of shot down because really you're trying for two results.

A- you want to pot the ballB- you want to hit the cluster in a manner that will develop the pack.

part A is harder with a thin cut but if you're above the black it makes part B of the shot easier

In the end you have to decide if you'd rather leave a tough pot that makes it easy to go into the cluster or an easier pot that makes disturbing the cluster slightly more difficult.

FYI - As suggested, please open new threads for new questions. Leave this one for Q&A regarding my game or history. This is the last technical question I will respond to on this thread.

I just wanted to say thanks for the advice you gave me around 6 months ago in regards to my drills. I have put them to good use and now have a high break of 77 but my average has skyrocketed. I am now a lot more consistant in amongst the balls. That said, 90% of my pots are still full baal contact, i still have major problems putting effect on the cue ball and holding it for position though but am getting better .

I have a problem when playing the shot. My hand holding the cue tends to hit the side of my body when playing a shot and therefore jerks the cue sideways on impact. Anyway to stop the hand hitting the chest? I've tried holding the cue in different places but no difference.

I'd need a picture/video to be certain what's going on but it sounds like you might have your elbow a little low at address or you've got your cueing arm turned slightly inward (like Bond for example).

Another possibility is that your body type/build isn't suited to your stance. Heavier/broader players tend have a hard time with the square to the table stance used by Hendry, they tend to need to play with one foot in front of the other (Reardon style) to keep their cue arm free and to be able to get over the cue line without impeding the cue action.

Honestly, there are a lot of things which could cause this and a video or at least a picture of you while addressing the cueball would go a long way in helping determine exactly what's going on. If you don't want to post it here just PM me a link and I'll see if I can spot something concrete for you to work on.

The best drill to improve your break-building consistency is the line up.

Put all the colors on their spots, put reds between the colors in a straight line from the black spot to the blue spot. I tend to make it a little tight so I have 3 reds below the black, 5 between black and pink and 7 between pink and blue. You can make it a little easier by spreading out the reds a bit more, in fact I recommend that you do so to begin with and tighten it up as you improve.

Practice, practice and when you're sick of it....practice some more ;-)

Please open new threads for each of the questions, it's going to make future searches for this kind of question easier for other users.

I'll answer your last one but new threads for future ones please ;-)

Cueing off the cushion is always a challenge.

I try to place by bridge hand with the palm on the side of the rail, fingers on top. IMO that's a nice consistent bridge to use for this kind of shot.

Normally one tries to keep the cue as flat as possible but when cueing off the rail there's very little room for the tip to find purchase on the cueball. To compensate, slightly elevate the butt (very slightly) to provide a little better striking angle.

Choke up on the cue. If you normally grip the butt right at or very near the end, choke up 4-6 inches for better control.